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Studies in Visual Communication

Volume 6 Issue 1 Spring 1980 Article 9

1980

Psychological States and the Artist: The Problem of

Jane Kromm

Recommended Citation Kromm, J. (1980). Psychological States and the Artist: The Problem of Michelangelo. 6 (1), 69-76. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/svc/vol6/iss1/9

This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/svc/vol6/iss1/9 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Psychological States and the Artist: The Problem of Michelangelo

This contents is available in Studies in Visual Communication: https://repository.upenn.edu/svc/vol6/iss1/9 Psychological States and the Artist: The Problem of Michelangelo Jane Kromm

The reality of Michelangelo's melancholia has in the As this last example suggests, characterizations of past been a major consideration in the work of schol­ Michelangelo's personality often lead to, and some­ ars attempting to understand the difficult personality of times replace, our critical understanding of stylistic this great artist. Interpretations have ranged from an problems and anomalies in Michelangelo's art. That extreme, virtually psychotic, melancholia to a general this tendency is pervasive is seen both in general ob­ melancholic state of mind affected to indicate creative servations that' 'works ... translate the passionate . In recent scholarship, however, judgments side of his temperament'' and in specific instances have become more severe. For example, Howard Hib­ such as the , in which "an ambiguous, unfulfilled, bard (1974:175, 179) maintains variously that Michel­ emotionally tense moment in the hero's career" is said angelo was "ultra-sensitive," "undoubtedly neurotic," ''to correspond to his [Michelangelo's] own mental and subject to "continual ," in a somewhat state'' (de Tolnay 1975:2-3, Hibbard 1974:61 ). Or liberal use of modern psychological terms. Such po­ that the strangely antiheroic subject matter of the tentially diagnostic adjectives may be the modern ex­ Battle of Cascina gave Michelangelo the ''opportunity tension of a long-established tradition aptly summa­ of projecting ... the emotional stresses of his early rized by the Wittkowers: existence" (Hartt 1964:26). Although no one would seriously hold that Michel­ There cannot be many adjectives that have not, at one angelo was mad, few are willing to consider his art un­ time or another, been used to characterize his [Michelan­ touched by personal conflict. Remarks about such gelo's] personality. He has been called avaricious and conflict frequently accompany explanations of the dis­ generous; superhuman and puerile; modest and vain; vio­ crepancies in stylistic development in Michelangelo's lent, suspicious, jealous, misanthropic, extravagant, tor­ early works. Dissimilarities between the Battle of the mented, bizarre, and terrible, and this list is far from being complete. [1963:72] Centaurs and the are said to correspond to ''the need which the young artist felt to This quantity of adjectives, whose range alone sug­ express in disparate works the contrary tendencies of gests , if not ambiguity, raises some con­ his being: the contemplative, seeking to evoke the cerns about their effect on Michelangelo studies. Spe­ eternal image of beauty, and the active, seeking to in­ cifically, questions about the function and subsequent carnate the turbulent forces of his own temperament'' influence of these descriptive terms come to mind. (de Tolnay 1975:2-3). The stylistic differences be­ Such usage is, it seems, primarily expressive, an au­ tween the Santo Spirito and the San Petronio thor's attempt to convey some intangible aspect of the statues are similarly attributed to ''various aspects of artist's work and personality. Such a function is sug­ Michelangelo's unfolding personality, from an extreme gested by these observations: ''A tragic, a pathetic grace and gentleness to an emotional violence'· pre­ is found in most of Michelangelo's works, viously formed by Michelangelo's childhood experi­ ... (Weinberger 1967:2), and "Michelangelo's grue­ ences of ''the rivalries of a male-dominated environ­ somest image of rejection is a bundle of and ment'' (Hartt 1964:20, 17). Such dichotomous despair'' (Steinberg 1975a:52-53). Sometimes a seri­ characteristics and their potential to result in conflict ous attempt is made to assimilate Michelangelo's are even used to describe Michelangelo's entire artis­ character to modern categories of psychology when tic career as an expression of "psychic as well as the suggestion of is implied: ''The Lives of overt conflict, a strong sense of " (Hibbard Condivi and Vasari clearly reflect Michelangelo's para­ 1974:25) so pervasive that it can even be found in Mi­ noid to Bramante" or the contention that Mi­ chelangelo's architectural designs in their "evocation chelangelo's rivalry with Raphael ''scarred Michelan­ of compression and frustration'' (Ackerman 1 966:1 7). gelo for life and impaired his perception of reality'' It would seem not merely coincidental that many of the (Hibbard 1974:92, 144). And even terms borrowed Wittkowers' adjectives take the form of antitheses. In a from psychological dynamics are recruited in the sug­ more critical spirit, such antitheses are not always gestion that a "gradual catharsis characterizes the de­ seen as reflections of Michelangelo's personality, but velopment of his personality as well as the structure of rather as "metaphors of strength under constraint, of his individual works" (de Tolnay 1960:94). individual will overruled" (Steinberg 1975b:37). Even though many of the personal qualities as­ cribed to Michelangelo carrying the implication of seri­ Jane Kromm is a Doctoral Candidate, Graduate Insti­ ous mental disturbance to modern thinking about per­ tute of Liberal Arts, Emory University, and a Lecturer sonality have been attributed to the topos of the in Art History, Atlanta College of Art. melancholic artist of the Renaissance (Wittkower 1963:chaps. 4 and 5), the tendency to consider Mi­ chelangelo unstable in a modern sense continues. Moreover, it is clear that such interpretations have a tendency to become serious avenues by which the 70 studies in Visual Communication

style and iconography of Michelangelo's oeuvre are are less revealing for our purposes than is Michelan­ often approached. Therefore, in an attempt to clarify gelo's poetry when it treats the same subject. the problem of Michelangelo's state of mind, this study That a harsh life suits Michelangelo's interpretation will utilize some of Michelangelo's letters and poems, of life and art is expressed in the following excerpts his art, and the biographies by Condivi and Vasari. 1 from his poems of 1 532 and 1 54 7, respectively: Perhaps a clearer notion of the psychological charac­ teristics Michelangelo demonstrated may be ascer­ I live on my own death; if I see right, tained from these primary sources, along with a deter­ My life with an unhappy lot is happy; mination of whether diagnoses of severe conditions If ignorant how to live on death and , Enter into this fire, where I'm destroyed and burnt. such as neurosis, constant depression, and psychosis 5 are valid. Considering that melancholia and psychosis [Gilbert 1963:36, no. 54] have not always been so closely allied in the past as No one has mastery they are in our century, Renaissance attitudes toward Before he is at the end both phenomena will also be examined. A major Of his art and his life. source in this aspect of our investigation is Ariosto's [Gilbert 1963:1 73, no. 323]6 Orlando Furioso, in which, as it well known, the pro­ tagonist succumbs to madness. In this way it is hoped Michelangelo reveals his understanding of the benefits that an understanding of Michelangelo's personality, such an existence can provide; in fact, several poems and of the RenaisJ>ance conceptions of melancholia reveal not only a sense of the positive value of dis­ and madness, may be more accurately delineated. tress, but an ironic appreciation of the inherent para­ The experiences of Michelangelo that may be con­ dox: strued as evidence of melancholia seem to cluster around several characteristic features. These are a I get my from my dejection, sense of suffering from the harshness of existence, And these disturbances give me rest; revealed through introspective insight, To him who asks it, God may grant ill-fortune! and mourning, , depression, and ruminative or ob­ [Gilbert 1963:150, no. 265; terza rima stanzas, Girardi sessional concerns. 267] Suffering from the harshness of existence is a fre­ quent theme in Michelangelo's letters. He refers to his My honored art, wherein I was for a time In such esteem, has brought me down to this: "miserable existence" and to his living conditions as Poor and old, under another's thumb. affording him ·'the greatest discomfort'' (Ramsden I am undone if I do not die fast! 2 1963:vol. I, letters 33 and 37). Most of these com­ [Gilbert 1963:151, no. 265; Girardi 267] plaints, however, are directed toward Michelangelo's family in circumstances in which their demands upon him appear to strain him, and are often completed by The harsh existence to which Michelangelo has the phrase that Michelangelo suffers only to help his subscribed is one of hard work and dedication, ac­ family. A letter of 1509 states: companied by the difficulties which such a course en­ tails, dealing as it does with the extremes of existence. For 12 years now I have gone about all over Italy, leading That such an interpretation of life is not without its pre­ a miserable life; I have borne every kind of , suffered every kind of hardship, worn myself to the bone tensions is acknowledged by Michelangelo through his with every kind of labor, risked my very life in a thousand ironic self-criticism. This aspect of Michelangelo's suf­ dangers, solely to help my family; ... [Ramsden 1963: fering, then, appears to be self-inflicted, satisfying, vol. I, letter 49]3 and tied strongly to a sense of striving toward a higher goal. The extent to which these features comprise followed three years later by: melancholia is certainly minimal. It is both a common­ place and long-standing feature of melancholia for in­ For I lead a miserable existence and reck not of life nor trospection to lead to inaction, a view clearly unte­ honor-that is of this world; I live wearied by stupendous nable in this instance. labors and beset by a thousand . And thus have 1 These examples point toward our next theme, the lived for some 1 5 years now and never an hour of happi­ ness have I had, and all this have I done in order to help consideration of Michelangelo's insight into his own you, ... [Ramsden 1963:vol.l, letter 82]4 experience. In this vein, Michelangelo adds in a letter of 1515 to his father: "I do not go running after fictions The theme of victimization is obvious and recurrent. To and am not therefore quite crazy, as you all imagine what extent these plaints induced in Michelan­ (italics mine)'' (Ramsden 1963:vol. I, letter 1 07). 7 It is gelo's family is not ascertainable, but the somewhat instructive that this excerpt reveals Michelangelo's manipulative and reproachful qualities of the letters own conception of madness as a failure to discern the truth; that is, a mentality immersed in or illu- The Problem of Michelangelo 71

sions is what he emphasizes in this use of pazzia. And In their treatment of Michelangelo's life, both Con­ that Michelangelo does not think himself possessed of divi and Vasari make generalized statements regard­ this characteristic is suggested in the following letter ing Michelangelo's character. They explain his reputa­ of 1524: tion as being eccentric and bizarre to be the result of the zeal to which he dedicated himself to art rather Yet because they say they find me in some way strange than some problem within his own personality. Vasari and obsessed, which harms no one but myself, they pre­ also firmly states: ''Art does not permit wandering of sume to speak ill of me and to abuse me; which is the re­ the mind" (Vasari 1946 ed.:292). Again, the Witt­ ward of all honest men. [Ramdsden 1963: vol. I, letter kowers, in Born under Saturn, confirm that much artis­ 161t tic bizarrie in this period may be ascribed to a self­ conscious eccentricity to which nearly all Renaissance Michelangelo understands his own difficulty as being artists conformed, rather than to personality disorders obsessional in nature, and another letter of 1542 con­ (Wittkower 1963:chaps. 4 and 5). firms the constancy of his point of view: Vasari and Condivi deal with Michelangelo's habits of daily living-in particular, his eating and sleeping I reply that one paints with the head and not with the hands, and if one cannot concentrate, one brings dis­ habits. Although differing somewhat in their ex­ grace upon oneself. Therefore, until my affair is settled, I planations, both relate that Michelangelo slept and ate can do no good work. [Ramsden 1963:vol. II, letter 227]9 little. Condivi attributes this to considerations of health, whereas for Vasari it is the necessary sacrifice Moreover, this passage reveals the obsessional's con­ in the life of the hard-working artist. In addition, Vasari cern with thought, with the products of thought, and emphasizes that much which would now be consid­ with the preeminent position of work and accomplish­ ered a sign of depression -lack of appetite and sleep ment in the obsessional character's view of exis­ disturbance-occurred when Michelangelo was still a tence.10 young man and that these behaviors were largely the It is commonly accepted that Michelangelo's insight result of adolescent attitudes: into his own character was remarkable, but that his un­ derstanding of this character as obsessive is rarely, if He has told me that, in his youth, he often slept in his ever, emphasized. A frequently quoted letter of 1525 clothes, so tired that it did not seem worthwhile to un­ dress only to dress again the next morning. [Vasari 1946 reveals this understanding quite emphatically: ed.:294] Yesterday evening our friend Capt. Cuio and several If not due entirely to the carelessness of youth, Michel­ other gentlemen kindly invited me to go and have supper with them, which gave me the greatest , as I angelo's personal carelessness and his sleeping and emerged a little from my depression, or rather from my eating difficulties cannot soundly be ascribed to de­ obsession. I not only enjoyed the supper, which was ex­ pression: an important feature in the depressive tremely pleasant, but also, and even more than this, the constellation, that of an inability to work, is absent. discussions which took place. [Ramsden 1963:vol. I, let­ Further, the vital element in melancholia or depres­ ter 170r 1 sion- inaction-is nowhere mentioned in any account of Michelangelo's life. Such inactivity may also be From the context of Michelangelo's numerous uses of found in an obsessional neurosis in "an ever-increas­ pazzo, it would seem that he considered himself to be ing degree of indecision, loss of energy, and restric­ more obsessed and preoccupied with his thoughts tion of freedom" (Freud 1963 ed.:260)-qualities simi­ than depressed, a state which our other excerpts sup­ larly lacking in accounts of Michelangelo's life. port.12 Regarding thought content, however, the differ­ A further area of inquiry pertinent to this study is Mi­ ential between melancholia and an obsession with chelangelo's reactions to the deaths of those to whom melancholic or sad concerns may be difficult to ascer­ he was close. Condivi relates, after the death of Lo­ tain. From an analysis of the letters and poems alone, renzo de' Medici in 1492: it is likely that we may conclude only the coexistence of these two major characteristics, the melancholic Michelangelo returned to his father's house, and he suf­ and the obsessional. However, the biographies by fered such anquish over this death that for many days he Condivi and Vasari, which contain information con­ was unable to do anything. But then he became himself cerning two important variables in this differen­ again and ... carved a Hercules. [Condivi 1976 ed.:12] tial-Michelangelo's habits of daily life and his reac­ tions to the loss of loved ones (both aspects being Recording Michelangelo's reaction to the death of Vit­ diagnostically significant to the melancholic and ob­ toria Colonna in 1 54 7, Condivi reveals a somewhat sessional conditions)-will be considered. more serious reaction: ''On account of her death he remained a long time in despair and as out of his mind" (Condivi 1976 ed.:1 03). However, an excerpt 72 studies in Visual Communication

from a letter of the same year indicates that, although In sum, selections from the poetry and letters reveal quite disturbed over Vittoria Colonna's death, Michel­ not only that Michelangelo most likely experienced angelo knew how to deal with it: "You'll say rightly that grief reactions within the normal range but, more im­ I'm old and distracted, but I assure you that only dis­ portantly, that he invested much insight into the artistic tractions prevent one from being beside oneself with expression of the dynamics (love-death, fusion-sepa­ grief" (Ramsden 1963:vol. II, letter 281 ). 13 Michelan­ ration) of this sort of experience. 15 Although clearly not gelo's reaction to the death of his servant, Urbina, in suffering from melancholia or reactive depression sub­ 1555, similarly does not reveal a melancholic reaction: sequent to the loss of significant relationships, Michel­ angelo had an investment in situating his artistic prob­ Urbino passed from this life to my intense grief, leaving lems within this psychological arena, suggesting that me so stricken and troubled that it would have been more this activity as well may function as an antidepressant easeful to die with him, because of the love I bore him, in much the same way as the ability to experience which he merited no less; ... [Ramsden 1963: vol. II, let­ grief. In addition to being adaptive strengths, the ter 408r 4 former may be evidence of the obsessive character's defense of intellectual control (Salzman 1968:11 ). In a And, on the death of his father in the early 1530s, a poem written at his father's death, Michelangelo ad­ willingness to grieve and to learn from such an experi­ mits that he has had a struggle between intellectual ence is further demonstrated: control and depression: As you depart; so I must separate Between the son dying first and you, thereafter, And even though the soul consents to reason, Of whom I'm speaking, tongue, pen, and lament. It does so stiffly, that I'm filled By having died my dying you will teach, Far more with more depression later on. Dear father, and I see you in my thought [Gilbert 1963:62, no. 84; Girardi no. 86] _ Where the world hardly ever lets us reach. [Gilbert 1963:61, no. 84; Girardi no. 86] Although Michelangelo is not demonstrably melan­ cholic by modern standards, it is necessary to con­ From these few excerpts, it is not unreasonable to sider also the distinctive elements of the Renaissance conclude that Michelangelo's reactions to these conception of melancholia. The melancholic charac­ deaths constitute normal grief reactions rather than ter, originally one of the four humors and aligned over the more protracted reaction of melancholia. More­ the years with the planet Saturn, altered in meaning over, the ability to experience grief militates further during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. In post­ against the development of depression and melan­ medieval poetry, melancholy became associated less cholia (Freud 1957 ed.:126-127). with medical usage and increasingly with an emphasis In his paper "Mourning and Melancholia," Freud on a subjective and transitory mood (Panofsky et al. defines melancholia, distinguishing it from the just as 1964:218). By the beginning of the Renaissance, this intense, but more transient, experience of grief: transitory nature was allied with a brooding withdrawal from reality. The heightened self-awareness that such The distinguishing mental features of melancholia are a a condition implied was tinged with the romantic con­ profound dejection, abrogation of in the outside notation afforded a tragic hero. Moreover, melancholia world, loss of the capacity to love, inhibition of all activity, came to be seen as an attractive condition: and a lowering of the self-regarding to a degree that finds utterance in self-reproaches and self-revilings, This consciousness became so much a part of self­ and culminates in a delusional expectation of punish­ awareness that there was scarcely a man of distinction ment. [Freud 1957 ed.: 125] who was not either genuinely melancholic or at least con­ sidered as such by himself and others. [Panofsky et al. Freud states that grief shares with depression all these 1964:232] characteristics except for the dramatic loss in self-es­ teem: "In grief the world becomes poor and empty; in It is within this perspective that the melancholia as­ melancholia it is the ego itself [which becomes poor cribed to both Michelangelo and Raphael, as well as to and empty]" (Freud 1957 ed.:127). Further, the others in the Renaissance, must be viewed. As the mourner is conscious of who it is that has been lost; in Wittkowers conclude: melancholia, however, although the sufferer may be aware of whom he has lost, he may not be conscious In the late fifteenth century a new type of artist emerged of "what it is he has lost in them" (Freud 1957 with distinct traits of personality. The approach of these ed.:127). The clinical picture of this disorder "is com­ artists to their work is characterized by furious activity pleted by sleeplessness and refusal of nourishment'' alternating with creative pauses; their psychological (Freud 1957 ed.:128). We have remarked elsewhere make-up by agonized introspection; their temperament by that the extremity of this condition eliminates its feasi­ a tendency to melancholy; and their social behavior by a bility as an interpretation of Michelangelo's character. craving for and by eccentricities of an endless variety. [Wittkower 1963:91] The Problem of Michelangelo 73

The amalgamation of melancholy with artistic viously been an obsession with Orlando begins to achievement is not restricted to artists alone, and this grow to delusive proportions: notion is revived in the Renaissance's resuscitation of the "Aristotelian" Problem XXX, in which all men of A victim now of unreturned, achievement are noted to be melancholic. The accom­ For God and king no longer he's concerned. plishment of this revival is established in the work of [Ariosto 1975 ed.:ix.1. 286.] the Neoplatonists, particularly Pica della Mirandola and . Whereas Pica's emphasis is in po­ This withdrawal continues: sitioning the melancholic temperament on a narrow pivotal point between divinity and animality, Ficino's By means of notions so improbable, emphasis is ''to identify what 'Aristotle' had called the And from the truth departing more and more, Although for comfort he has little scope, melancholy of intellectually outstanding men with The unhappy Count contrives to build false . Plato's 'divine frenzy' " (Panofsky et al 1964:259). Fi­ [Ariosto 1975 ed.:xxiii. 104. 719.] cino states in his monograph De vita triplici, which is devoted to this subject, that Three times, four times, six times, he read the script, Attempting still, unhappy wretch!, in vain, Saturn seldom denotes ordinary characters and des­ (For the true meaning he would not accept) tinies, but rather men who are set apart from the others, To change the sense of what was clear and plain. divine or animal, . .. [Panofsky et al. 1964:253] [Ariosto 1975 ed.:xxiii. iii. 720.]

However, Ficino considers the melancholic temper­ The role of delusions in the Renaissance concep­ ament an unhappy fate, and the rest of his monograph tion of madness is emphasized by Foucault, particu­ is devoted to suggesting methods of coping with it. Fi­ larly in its typically humanistic orientation: cino therefore maintains the antithesis, which melan­ choly has come to imply even in the face of its glorifi­ There is no madness but that which is in every man, since cation in the role of creativity. In this way it would it is man who constitutes madness in the attachment he seem that bears for himself and by the illusions he entertains. [1965:26] the many-sidedness of Saturn shrinks to a clear antithesis between extreme intellectual disorder and extreme in­ Further, as we see happening to Orlando, "In this tellectual ability, emphasizing strongly the significance delusive attachment to himself, man generates his and vulnerability of the latter. [Panofsky et al., 1964:252] madness like a mirage" (Foucault 1965:27). However, this experience of madness is not entirely related to an Thus we arrive· at a point where melancholy, with its intelligence which is human, or, in other words, by a antithetical potential, can be and is affected by crea­ disorder in thought processes. Foucault emphasizes tive men of all sorts in the Renaissance, even in the the element of animality in the Renaissance experi­ face of its more serious onus, the threat of madness. ence of madness: The question to which we address ourselves now, therefore, is to what extent did the creatively melan­ But at the beginning of the Renaissance, the relations cholic man court madness and by what other forms with animality are reversed; the beast is set free; it es­ was madness recognized in the Renaissance. Michel capes the world of legend and moral illustration to ac­ Foucault, in Madness and Civilization, makes note of a quire a fantastic nature of its own. And by an astonishing reversal, it is now the animal that will stalk man, capture Renaissance literary form which acknowledges mad­ him, and reveal to him his own truth. [1965:21] ness as the result of desperate passion: This animality is the next stage in Orlando's madness: Love disappointed in its excess, and especially love de­ ceived by the fatality of death, has no other recourse but His grief so swells, his sorrows so amass madness. As long as there was an object, mad love was That madness clouds him, in which long he erred. more love than madness; left to itself, it pursues itself in the void of delirium. [Foucault 1965:30] On the fourth-, by fury roused once more, The mail and armour from his back he tore.

Foucault is specifically referring to Shakespeare and His scattered arms mute testimony bear Cervantes, but it is observed in the World History of To his unhinged and catastrophic mood. Psychiatry(Howells 1975:54) that the Italian prototype Then next his clothing he begins to tear, of this literary form is Ariosto's poem Orlando Furioso, publrshed in 1516, in which Orlando is driven mad by ... ; unarmed his strength immense is, unrequited love. Having come upon certain evidence Barehanded, he uproots at the first blow that his loved one belongs to another, what had pre- A tall and noble pine and lays it low. [Ariosto 1975 ed.:xxxiii. 132-134. 726.] 74 studies in Visual Communication

In this way Orlando's madness is given over to , assumes a primary importance. This inability to work, fury, and the destruction of nature. This mistreatment although a primary characteristic of melancholia, is is not confined to nature alone, however: Orlando has notable in its absence from the constellation of attrib­ already abused his horse, an apparently criminal act in utes to which melancholic creative men subscribed in the Renaissance (Ariosto 1975 ed.:xxv). the Renaissance. In conclusion, revealing his familiarity with the Ren­ Although mindful of the potential for madness in the aissance notion of the potential for madness in the melancholic character, the Renaissance did not really very occurrence of passion (Foucault 1965:88), confound these characteristics with psychosis or neu­ Ariosto speaks at the end of his poem: rosis. The results of this analysis would indicate that much of the melancholy constellation may be more For what is love but madness after all, properly understood as constituting an obsessional As every wise man in the wide world knows? character structure. That this is true for Michelangelo Though it is true not everyone may fall may be seen by observing that, despite being worried Into Orlando's state, his frenzy shows and beset by troubles, Michelangelo's ability to sus­ What perils lurk; what sign is there more plain tain long periods of concentration and work was never Than self-destruction, of a mind insane? [Ariosto 1975 ed.: xxix] impaired, precluding an interpretation of psychosis; and there is no recorded onset of any such symptom­ Thus animality, rage, , and self-destruction ology, about which Michelangelo would certainly have are the qualities by which Ariosto describes the expe­ complained. Although Michelangelo dwelt on gloomy rience of the madness of Orlando. Melancholic attrib­ issues, his thinking, though characteristically rumina­ utes, such as brooding, grief, contemplation, and in­ tive and obsessive, never approaches the extremity of action, are not included in the delineation of Orlando's a withdrawal from reality. Further, Michelangelo's er­ sorry state, except for one brief stage in his decline: ratic behavior in social situations is not that commonly found in neurosis, conforming instead to the pattern The Count requests a bed but will not eat characteristic of problems in character structure; that Sated with grief, he wants no other meat. is, the ways in which social intercourse is mismanaged [Ariosto 1975 ed.: xxxiii. 116. 722.] are reliable, repetitive, stable, and restricted only to specified situations. That this character structure may Besides this one reference, it is apparent that best be described as obsessional in nature is con­ Ariosto does not utilize the qualities of the melancholic firmed by the recurrence of such features as control temperament to describe the madness of Orlando, al­ through intellect, omniscience, and other obsessive though it is probable that Ariosto knew of them. It traits. would seem, then, that although recognizing the po­ Finally, alongside the previously mentioned dis­ tential for madness in the melancholic temperament, tinction between melancholy and madness in the Ren­ the Renaissance preserved something of a distinction aissance, it seems reasonable to maintain that Michel­ between melancholia and madness. The attributes of angelo's obsessive character is also quite distinct from melancholy were originally conceived in the distinction the Renaissance conception of madness as well as our of various characters. If Orlando typifies the concep­ own; certainly, little evidence has been found to justify tion of madness in the Renaissance, then this confirms the continuing use of severe diagnoses of Michelan­ melancholy's association with character structure as gelo's personality. Moreover, the tendency to project opposed to madness. Further, given Michelangelo's the qualities of serious conditions on Michelangelo's own inclination to consider himself beset with obses­ art has complicated the art historical assessment of sions, it would seem that many of the characteristics his work. In addition to the interpretations cited at the which the Renaissance attributed to melancholy are beginning of this paper, the tenacity as well as the po­ more properly ascribed to the obsessional character, tential of such psychological interpretations or a character structure in which most defenses are of may be demonstrated by an instance in which the the obsessive variety. Interestingly, Orlando's cure is same work of art is claimed to exemplify diametrically effected through regaining his obsessive defenses­ opposite personality attributes-emotional violence his reintegration is established through the learning of and . In his discussion of the classical balance, proportion, and control. 16 style of the and statues, Weinberger This distinction between melancholia and madness (1967:279) concludes that "what Burckhardt re­ is further upheld by the qualitative difference between garded as an indication of coldness is rather a sign of contemporary accounts of the melancholia of Raphael that detachment which marks the works of Michelan­ and Michelangelo and those of more seriously dis­ gelo's old age," in answer to Hartt's observation turbed artists such as Hugo van der Goes and Anni­ (1968:272) that "below this austere surface still pul­ bale Carracci (Wittkower 1963:chap. 5). In accounts sates the physical and emotional violence of Michelan­ of the conditions of the latter two, the inability to work gelo's own nature.'' The Problem of Michelangelo 75

The paramount importance of this interpretative punitive manifestation,' '' Steinberg has found evi­ bias for Michelangelo studies is heightened by Leo dence to the contrary, thereby revising the widespread Steinberg's recent revisionist interpretations of Mi­ and long-standing tradition of confounding Michelan­ chelangelo's last paintings. While reestablishing the gelo's iconographic and stylistic intentions with nega­ primacy of the visual image, Steinberg is led toques­ tive personality traits (1975a:50). The Last Judgment tion this tendency to ascribe what is unclear about Mi­ can no longer be seen as the result of "Michelangelo's chelangelo's art to his personality, and in so doing he conceptions of ancient myths of punishment'' (de Tal­ arrives at a new understanding of the artist's creative nay 1960:25), nor can the self-image with flayed skin procedures. In his introductory discussion in Michel­ be thoroughly understood as "the artist's inner nature, angelo's Last Paintings, Steinberg mentions an un­ corroded by self- so intense as to become an afflic­ usual document-the artist's list of three menus with tion" (Hartt 1964:144). Even less is the Last Judg­ accompanying illustrations, which begin in a neat and ment yet another instance of a tendency in the artist's orderly way but eventually cascade down the right late years of a "recurrent masochistic attitude" (Hartt side and bottom of the paper. First published by de 1964•156). Tolnay, this peculiar document was once again attrib­ Formulated on a reassessment of the structure and uted to that so-called unreliable aspect of Michelan­ imagery of the Last Judgment, accompanied by docu­ gelo's personality as another instance of the artist's mentation and interpretative support-and, signifi­ being "carried away by his temperament, ... " (Stein­ cantly, by not telescoping the religious guilt of Michel­ berg 1975b:7). Not satisfied with this interpretation, angelo's beliefs into personal and neurotic guilt­ Steinberg goes on to remind us that "a temperament is Steinberg can approach the of a Last Judg­ complex" and, after further investigation, isolates ment conceived as merciful. And this despite the fact what he believes to be an important aspect of Michel­ that angelo's working method and creative process-the impulse to construct the broadest referential frame­ for 400 years, those who gave account of the picture in work, as the artistic "concept expands against there­ word or image obeyed a compulsion to accentuate what­ tentive force of some outer limit contracting upon it." ever seemed harsh, to unsee and suppress any tremor of Rather than speculating on the vagaries of temper­ exultation or gentleness. The abundance of Michelan­ ament, Steinberg attempts to elucidate the rational, gelo's hope was either ignored or turned into its opposite. [Steinberg 1975a:60] structural attributes upon which Michelangelo's work­ ing process is grounded, and in so doing extends our Perhaps the uncritical use by most Michelangelo understanding of the tendency often observed in the scholars of psychological terminology which prompted artist's work, and sometimes designated as his prefer­ this study has some justification as an expressive de­ ence for obstacles, which "apparently he liked ... , vice. Unfortunately, however, the willingness to con­ perhaps even sought ... out; ... '' (Ackerman flate neurotic and even psychotic traits with artistic ac­ 1966:20). Clearly, Steinberg has arrived at a theoreti­ tivity, which then encroach upoA stylistic and cally more productive conclusion than that previously iconographic interpretations, creates a false impres­ suggested by Frederick Hartt. In attempting to fathom sion of the creative person and his art-an impression Michelangelo's preference for the exceptionally em­ that is clearly inadequate for an understanding of so phatic frame in his discussion of the major an artistic innovator as Michelangelo. and the Tomb of Julius II, Hartt (1968:19) relied on a psychological, and distinctly negative, explanation that the frames gain prominence as part of Michelangelo's "obsessive delight in ornamentation." It is this kind of Acknowledgments interpretation that militates against the possibility that The author wishes to thank Dr. John Hewett, Emory obsessive traits such as control and omniscience may, University, and Dr. Leo Steinberg, University of Penn­ in fact, be put to constructive use i.n the service of Mi­ sylvania, for their assistance and encouragement. chelangelo's artistic conceptions. Even more revealing is Steinberg's interpretation of the Last Judgment, in which supposed , punishment, and masochism are first routed by a reex­ Notes amination of the work itself and then clarified by an un­ The present study is not concerned with examining this material in order derstanding of the artist's religious, though probably to deduce unconscious sources of motivation or conflict as would be ap­ heretical, beliefs. Although the tradition of viewing the propriate to a traditional psychoanalytic study of personality; see Condivi Last Judgment as a Dies /rae conforms both to scrip­ (1976 ed .) and Vasari (1946 ed.). For a recent contribution in this vein , see Panofsky et al. (1 964). ture and primary sources, and has prompted ''the 2 See Giovanni Poggi, II Carteggio di Michelangelo. 1:51, letter XXXVI : ready agreement of most later writers on Michelan­ "un chativo essere" ; 1:55, letter XL: "grandissimo disagio." gelo, who persist in seeing the fresco as a 'wholly 76 studies in Visual Communication

3 See Poggi , 1:96, letter LXVII: " . . e questo e che io son ito da dodici • de Tolnay, Charles anni in qua tapinando per tucta ltalia, sopportato ogni vergognia, patito 1960 Michelangelo. Vol. 5: The Final Period . Princeton: Princeton ogni stento, lacerato il corpo mio in ongni faticha, messa Ia vita propria a University Press. mille peri coli solo per aiutar Ia chasa mia; . '' 1964 The Art and Thought of Michelangelo. New York: Pantheon. 4 See Poggi I: 1 41 , letter CVII : · ' . .. , che vivo meschinamente e non curo 1975 Michelangelo: Sculptor, Painter, Architect. Princeton : Prince­ ne della vita ne dello onore, cioe del mondo, e vivo chon grandissime ton University Press. fatiche e chon mille sospecti. E gia sono stato cosl circha di quindici • Foucault, Michel anni, che mai ebbi un'ora di bene, e.ctucto 6 facto per aiutarvi, . . . " 1965 Madness and Civilization : A History of Insanity in the Age of 5 Gilbert's translations (1 963) are used throughout, along with Girardi Reason . New York : Random House. numbers (1 967) whenever possible. • Freud , Sigmund 6 Fragments of lost madrigals, Girardi , App. 35. Quoted in Varchi's lec­ 1 95 7 A General Selection from the Works of Sigmund Freud. John ture of 1 54 7. Rickman (ed .). New York: Liveright. 7 See Poggi, 1:1 77, letter CXXXVIII: " lo non vo drieto a favole e non son 1963 Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud . Lecture perc pazzo a facto chome vo i credete; . . . " XVII , Vol. XVI. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho­ 8 See Poggi , 111 :27, letter DCVIII: " . . . poi , sopra qualche mia bizzarria o analysis. pazzia che e'dichon che io 6, che non nuoce se non a.mme, si son • Gilbert, Creighton (trans.) fondati a dir male dime e a vituperarmi, che eel premio di tucti 1963 Complete Poems and Selected Letters of Michelangelo. Rob­ gl'uomini da bene." ert N. Linscott (ed .). New York: Vintage. 9 See Gaetano Milanesi , Le Lettere di Michelangelo Buonarroti, letter • Girardi, Enzo N. (ed. ) CDXXXV: "lo rispondo, che si dipinge col ciervello et non con le mani; 1967 Michelangelo Buonarroti, Rime. Bari, Italy: Laterza . et chi non puc avere il ciervello seco , si vitupera: perc fin che Ia cosa • Hartt, Frederick mia non si acconcia, non fo cosa buona." 1 964 Michelangelo. New York: Abrams. 10 See Leon Salzman (1 968) and Sigmund Freud (1 963). 1968 Michelangelo: The Complete Sculpture. New York: Abrams. 11 See Poggi, 111 :156, letter DCCIV: " ... iersera el vostro amicho chap­ • Hibbard, Howard itano Chuio e certi altri gentilomini volsono, lor gratia, che io andassi 197 4 Michelangelo. New York: Harper and Row . a.ccena chon loro, di che ebi grandissimo piacere, perche usci ' um • Howells, John (ed .) pocho del mio malinchonicho, o vera del mio pazzo; . '' 1975 World History of Psychiatry. New York: Brunner / Maze!. 12 The Wittkowers point out that in the sixteenth century "pazzia" could • Liebert, Robert S. vary in meaning from madness to strangeness and eccentricity (chap. 1977 Michelangelo's Mutilation of the Florence Pieta : A Psycho­ 5) . analytic Inquiry. Art Bulletin LI X( 1 ):4 7-54. 13 See Milanesi, letter CDLXV: "Voi direte bene che io sia vecchio e pazo: • Milanesi, Gaetano e io vi dico, che per istar sano e con manco passione, non ci trovo meg­ 1875 Le Lettere di Michelangelo Buonarroti. Firenze, Italy: Ricordi lio che Ia pazzia. " Editore. 14 See Milanese, letter CCLXXXIV: " . . . passe di questa vita Francesco • Panofsky, Erwin 1 detto Urbino, con grandissimo mio affanno; e ammi lasciato molto af­ 1 969 Studies in lconology: Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Ren­ litto e tribolato , tanto che mi sare ' stato piu dolce il morir con esso seco, aissance. New York: Harper and Row. per l'amore che io gli portavo: e non ne meritava manco; . " ---,Raymond Klibansky, and Fritz Saxl 15 For a thorough discussion of important themes in Michelangelo's poetry, 1 964 Saturn and Melancholy: Studies in the History of Natural Philos­ see Robert J. Clements (1 965). Concerning the grief reaction, a recent ophy, Religion and Art. London: Nelson and Sons. paper of Liebert (1 977) attempts to link Michelangelo's destruction of • Poggi , Giovanni the Florence Pieta with the dynamics of ambivalence and the death of 1 965 II Carteggio di Michelangelo. 2 vols. Firenze, Italy: Sansoni Edi­ Urbino. tore. 16 It is important to recall that this aspect of Orlando's return to sanity is ac­ • Ramsden, E. H. (ed.) companied by magical as well as religious themes. For example, Astolfo 1963 The Letters of Michelangelo. 2 vols. Stanford, CA: Stanford must travel to the moon (demonstrating the lunar-lunacy association) University Press. with St . John and retrieve Orlando's , which are contained there in • Salzman , Leon a vial. In this way magical and religious elements are retained in addition 1968 The Obsessive Personality: Origins, Dynamics, and Therapy. to the more pragmatic and obsessive characteristics mentioned above. New York: Science House. • Steinberg , Leo 1975a Michelangelo's " Last Judgment" as Merciful Heresy. Art in America (63):49- 63. References 1975b Michelangelo's Last Paintings. New York: Oxford University • Ackerman , James Press. 1966 The Architecture of Michelangelo. New York: Viking Press. • Tusiani , Joseph (trans.) • Ariosto, Ludovico 1960 The Complete Poems of Michelangelo. New York : Noonday 1974 Orlando Furioso. Guido Waldman (trans.). New York: Oxford Press. University Press . • Vasari , Giorgio 1946 Lives of the Artists . Barbara Burroughs (ed.). New York: Simon 1975 Orlando Furioso. Barbara Reynolds (trans.). Part I. Baltimore: and Schuster. Penguin Books. • Weinberger, Martin • Clements, Robert J. 1967 Michelangelo the Sculptor. New York: Columbia University 1961 Michelangelo's Theory of Art. New York: New York University Press. Press. • Wittkower, Rudolf and Margot 1965 The Poetry of Michelangelo. New York: New York University 1 963 Born under Saturn: The Character and Conduct of Artists. New Press. York: Norton. • Condivi, Ascanio • Zilboorg, Gregory 1976 The Life of Michelangelo. H. Wohl (ed.). A. Wohl (trans.). Baton 1941 A History of Medical Psychology. New York: Norton . Rouge: Louisiana State University Press .